NLNG Denies Link to Recovery of Funds

Ejiofor Alike

The Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) has denied a recent report by an unnamed media linking it to the ongoing recovery of funds by the federal government, describing the report as erroneous.

The company’s General Manager in charge of External Relations Division, Dr. Kudo Eresia-Eke, in a statement yesterday quoted the report as alleging that $3.1 billion was intercepted in the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and NLNG, which was yet to be moved to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in line with the Transaction Single Account (TSA) policy.

According to Ereisa-Eke, NLNG views this statement with utmost seriousness and wishes to denounce it as misleading and untrue.

Eresia-Eke further clarified that no NLNG’s accounts are the subject of any recovery effort by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or any other similar authority, more especially as the NLNG is a private company and not a government agency or parastatal.

“We are surprised that these misleading reports continue to be rehashed despite categorical statements by ourselves and third parties, including the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) to the effect that NLNG has no outstanding obligations to the government,” he added.

He appealed to all concerned stakeholders to take the necessary duty of care of checking the accuracy of information before publication.

The federal government had released an interim report of recoveries of looted assets and monies, whose announcement was initially fixed for Democracy Day but passed by President Muhammadu Buhari, who shifted it to the Information Minister.